Pearlsong Press books

K.C. Littleton: Violet Crown: A Dr. Hedy Villarreal NovelA forty-something criminal psychologist with the vocabulary and nerd tattoos of a well-education sailor goes into protective custody at a black ops site deep in the Texas Hill Country, and quickly finds out her world is not as she thought it was.

Maria Fama: Other Nations: An Animal JournalPoems taking us into the hearts and souls of animals, who are, as naturalist Henry Beston saw them, "other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

Lynne Murray: At LargeThe 3rd book in the Josephine Fuller mystery series finds Jo a suspect in the death of the woman who broke up her marriage.

Tracey L. Thompson: FatropolisMost of her life Jenny has felt she's not good enough, not attractive enough, because she's fat. Then one day she stumbles through a portal between a world that values thinness and one that values roundness. Sometimes falling can wake you up.

Leslie Moïse: Love is the Thread: A Knitting FriendshipSustained by the metaphor of knitting, Love is the Thread traces the way one spiritual friendship can change all our relationships. The memoir centers on the friendship between a woman snared in a lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder and another woman reweaving her life after an abusive relationship.

Lynne Murray: The Falstaff Vampire FilesSir John Falstaff is undead & misbehaving in San Francisco. Kris Marlowe doesn't believe in vampires, but when she's attacked by a horde of murderous monsters she must seek help from the most famous rogue in history.

Lynne Murray: Larger Than DeathMeet Josephine Fuller, a sleuth of size who doesn't apologize. Full-figured & full of attitude with abundant sleuthing skills, Jo takes time off from her new job and walks into a murder case. Her best friend and early role model, a plus-sized clothing designer, lies slain in her own apartment. Was she the victim of a serial killer who targets voluptuous women, or is the murder personal? In the first of a series being brought back to print -- & ebook -- Jo copes with her friend's murder, an unexpected romance and bizarre neighbors as she races to find the killer before becoming the next victim.

Lauri J Owen: Blowing EmbersBook 2 of The Embers Series (sequel to Fallen Embers) continues the saga of Kiera, transported to an alternate Alaska in which those who have the power to control the elements -- now including Kiera -- have ruled over those who cannot, including the shapeshifting indigenous peoples. The Fairbanks slaves struggle to maintain their newly won freedom, which is threatened by a force that will also shatter Kiera's heart.

Pat Ballard: Dangerous LoveNew romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances! Ava Manning saw some research she wasn't supposed to, and now someone wants her dead. As if that isn't complicating her life enough, she has to deal with charming LAPD detective Ricky Don McKinzie....

Karen Blomain: The Season of Lost ChildrenIn a small college town in Pennsylvania the lives of a bigamist's wife, a Polish orphan, an ex-priest and his wife -- a former nun -- and a mute teenage runaway intersect.

Charlie Lovett: The Fat Lady SingsYoung Adult fiction. Sassy, irreverent Aggie Stockdale should have gotten the lead in her high school play. But she isn't just a talented actress, writer, and athlete. She's also the fattest girl in the senior class.

Ellen Frankel: Syd ArthurLove, Laughter & Enlightenment! A middle-aged Jewish woman is soon in over her chakras as her spiritual search takes her from yoga studio to meditation hall to ashram gift store to the pages of Zensational catalogue. Her Mah Jongg group insists it's merely a midlife crisis. But nothing's going to stop Syd's journey toward Nirvana -- not even the hottest sale at Nordstrom's.

Lauri J Owen: Fallen EmbersKiera and her nephew are transported to an alternate, feudal Alaska during a strange dog's attack. The icy land is ruled by decadent mages who have enslaved the shapechanging, indigenous peoples. Kiera soon finds herself fighting -- and, to her astonishment, summoning fire. Before she can find her way home she must learn about the local systems of magic and her own powers. Kiera's path leads her deeper into Alaska, to romance, joy and heartbreak. Choosing to follow her heart may cost her everything.

Lynne Murray: Bride of the Living DeadBig, beautiful & rebellious, indie film critic Daria MacClellan is most comfortable in a monster movie poster T-shirt & blue jeans. Yet when family drama hijacks her engagement, she's trapped into a formal wedding with her perfectionist, anorexic sister, Sky, planning the whole thing. Daria adores her fiance, but her wedding seems to be spiraling into a horror film. Will the spectre of a picture perfect wedding turn her into the Bride of the Living Dead?

Rebecca Brock: The Giving SeasonTo have the life she's always dreamed of, Jessy must fight her insecurity and learn how to let Michael -- and his family -- love her just as she is.

Frannie Zellman: FatLandIn the near future the Pro-Health Laws of the United States of America have become so oppressive that people seeking freedom over their bodies have established a new country. In FatLand, life is good and scales are forbidden. Free from the hatred and discrimination of the Other Side, FatLanders have built happy, productive lives. But not everyone is flourishing.

Charlie Lovett: The ProgramA new weight loss clinic in New York City has an offer for you -- given them $5,000 and they'll make you as thin as a supermodel. You can eat whatever you want and never gain an ounce. Tempted? Fledgling journalist Karen Sumner would be -- if only she had $5,000. When Karen finally walks through the blue and gold doors of The Program, however, she's on the trail of the hottest story of her career. If she and her friends are right, The Program is doing something even worse than creating an army of unnaturally thin women. Library Journal calls The Program "a lively first novel. Highly recommended."

Linda C Wisniewski: Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish HeritageEven before she was diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, Linda Wisniewski felt off kilter. Born to a cruel father in the insulated Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York, she learned martyrdom as a way of life. Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother and her culture. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her Polish American heritage does she finally find balance and a life that fits. Maureen Murdock, author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory, calls Off Kilter "a courageous, insightful book, particularly relevant for anyone who grew up feeling physically 'different.'"

Pat, Ballard: The Best ManSparks fly the night Lana Clarke meets to plan her sister's wedding -- and not just because curvaceous Lana announces she's stopped dieting and doesn't care if she's fat as maid of honor. The strong-willed sister of the bride attracts the attention of the groom's devastatingly handsome best man, Anthony Angelino. But when the sparks become flames, Lana's in trouble. Tony's first wife died mysteriously. Will Lana be next?

Judy Bagshaw: At Long Last, LoveBig beautiful --and in some cases slightly more mature -- heroines grace the pages of this collection of romantic short stories by Judy Bagshaw.

Jack Adler: Splendid SeniorsAn inspiring ensemble of 52 people whose accomplishments after age 65 remind us that creativity, passion & influence can not only flower in later years, but bear delicious fruit.

Mary Saracino: The Singing of Swans"The Singing of Swans is a remarkable narrative calling--even compelling--us to connect with our own ancestral roots, to seek our own inner wisdom, and to reclaim our own inner voices!" --Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman With the Alabaster Jar & Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile

Ellen Frankel: Beyond Measure: A Memoir About Short Stature and Inner Growth"If you have ever measured your height or your weight and felt good or bad about yourself as a result, you need this book. In its pages, Ellen Frankel makes an important contribution to human liberation by telling the most fabulous story that can be told, the story of a person coming fully into her own. This book is thought-provoking, heart-rending, and a genuine solace for people of all sizes." --Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?

Pat Ballard: Abigail's RevengeInjustice, romance and suspense smolder in a small Southern town. Romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances, Pat Ballard.

Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.: Taking Up Space"Thomas's incisive blend of sociological inquiry and personal narrative amounts to a provocative treatise on fat oppression in our culture. Taking Up Space is a kind of roadmap through the minefield of the 'war on obesity,' and it offers protection to the reader ready to fight for cultural change surrounding the meaning of fatness." --Kathleen LeBesco, Ph.D., author of Revotling Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity.

Anne Richardson Williams: Unconventional Means: The Dream Down UnderShattered by family tragedy in the early 1960s, an upper-middle-class Southern teenager finds solace in art and literature. Decades later she is called to the continent whose literature once comforted her, and to a magical connection with an Aboriginal woman transcending race and half a world.

Pat Ballard: A Worthy HeirWhen Pam Spencer sees the newspaper ad seeking "a worthy heir" to Fiona Bainbridge's millions, she jumps at the chance to get her brother the medical care he needs after a job-related accident. But Reese Bainbridge, Fiona's handsome grandson--and jilted heir--rushes home in anger when he hears his grandmother has moved Pam and her brother into the family mansion. Sparks fly--and Pam is up to the challenge.

Pat Ballard: His Brother's ChildOne party, one silver-tongued, double-talking stranger intent on winning a bet, and Faith Carr ends up betrayed, alone, and pregnant. When Edward Brenner shows up on her doorstep intending to right his brother's wrongs, she's scared and vulnerable. But she agrees to marry this stranger to give the baby a father, although keeping him at a distance. She doesn't realize that Edward fell in love with her the moment he saw her. Will her battered self-esteem allow her to see the truth--and her own beauty?

Pat Ballard: Wanted: One GroomWealthy Hanna Rockwell will lose her home and her inheritance unless she marries by her 30th birthday. She's stunned when Matt Corbett, the faded rock start she worshipped in her teens, accepts her brother's offer to bail him out of financial trouble if he'll marry her. Her teenaged fantasies come to life--bringing a few surprises with them.

Pat Ballard: Nobody's PerfectNella Covington can't believe she's agreed to marry arrogant Samuel du Cannon, even if it IS only a marriage of convenience. He needs a mother for his young son, and she needs to keep her childhood home. If Sam's work keeps him on the road enough, she won't have to deal with him much. Sam's never been attracted to plus-size women, so they won't be tempted to have a real relationship. At least, that's what they keep telling themselves--

Pearlsong Press books

K.C. Littleton: Violet Crown: A Dr. Hedy Villarreal NovelA forty-something criminal psychologist with the vocabulary and nerd tattoos of a well-education sailor goes into protective custody at a black ops site deep in the Texas Hill Country, and quickly finds out her world is not as she thought it was.

Maria Fama: Other Nations: An Animal JournalPoems taking us into the hearts and souls of animals, who are, as naturalist Henry Beston saw them, "other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth."

Lynne Murray: At LargeThe 3rd book in the Josephine Fuller mystery series finds Jo a suspect in the death of the woman who broke up her marriage.

Tracey L. Thompson: FatropolisMost of her life Jenny has felt she's not good enough, not attractive enough, because she's fat. Then one day she stumbles through a portal between a world that values thinness and one that values roundness. Sometimes falling can wake you up.

Leslie Moïse: Love is the Thread: A Knitting FriendshipSustained by the metaphor of knitting, Love is the Thread traces the way one spiritual friendship can change all our relationships. The memoir centers on the friendship between a woman snared in a lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder and another woman reweaving her life after an abusive relationship.

Lynne Murray: The Falstaff Vampire FilesSir John Falstaff is undead & misbehaving in San Francisco. Kris Marlowe doesn't believe in vampires, but when she's attacked by a horde of murderous monsters she must seek help from the most famous rogue in history.

Lynne Murray: Larger Than DeathMeet Josephine Fuller, a sleuth of size who doesn't apologize. Full-figured & full of attitude with abundant sleuthing skills, Jo takes time off from her new job and walks into a murder case. Her best friend and early role model, a plus-sized clothing designer, lies slain in her own apartment. Was she the victim of a serial killer who targets voluptuous women, or is the murder personal? In the first of a series being brought back to print -- & ebook -- Jo copes with her friend's murder, an unexpected romance and bizarre neighbors as she races to find the killer before becoming the next victim.

Lauri J Owen: Blowing EmbersBook 2 of The Embers Series (sequel to Fallen Embers) continues the saga of Kiera, transported to an alternate Alaska in which those who have the power to control the elements -- now including Kiera -- have ruled over those who cannot, including the shapeshifting indigenous peoples. The Fairbanks slaves struggle to maintain their newly won freedom, which is threatened by a force that will also shatter Kiera's heart.

Pat Ballard: Dangerous LoveNew romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances! Ava Manning saw some research she wasn't supposed to, and now someone wants her dead. As if that isn't complicating her life enough, she has to deal with charming LAPD detective Ricky Don McKinzie....

Karen Blomain: The Season of Lost ChildrenIn a small college town in Pennsylvania the lives of a bigamist's wife, a Polish orphan, an ex-priest and his wife -- a former nun -- and a mute teenage runaway intersect.

Charlie Lovett: The Fat Lady SingsYoung Adult fiction. Sassy, irreverent Aggie Stockdale should have gotten the lead in her high school play. But she isn't just a talented actress, writer, and athlete. She's also the fattest girl in the senior class.

Ellen Frankel: Syd ArthurLove, Laughter & Enlightenment! A middle-aged Jewish woman is soon in over her chakras as her spiritual search takes her from yoga studio to meditation hall to ashram gift store to the pages of Zensational catalogue. Her Mah Jongg group insists it's merely a midlife crisis. But nothing's going to stop Syd's journey toward Nirvana -- not even the hottest sale at Nordstrom's.

Lauri J Owen: Fallen EmbersKiera and her nephew are transported to an alternate, feudal Alaska during a strange dog's attack. The icy land is ruled by decadent mages who have enslaved the shapechanging, indigenous peoples. Kiera soon finds herself fighting -- and, to her astonishment, summoning fire. Before she can find her way home she must learn about the local systems of magic and her own powers. Kiera's path leads her deeper into Alaska, to romance, joy and heartbreak. Choosing to follow her heart may cost her everything.

Lynne Murray: Bride of the Living DeadBig, beautiful & rebellious, indie film critic Daria MacClellan is most comfortable in a monster movie poster T-shirt & blue jeans. Yet when family drama hijacks her engagement, she's trapped into a formal wedding with her perfectionist, anorexic sister, Sky, planning the whole thing. Daria adores her fiance, but her wedding seems to be spiraling into a horror film. Will the spectre of a picture perfect wedding turn her into the Bride of the Living Dead?

Rebecca Brock: The Giving SeasonTo have the life she's always dreamed of, Jessy must fight her insecurity and learn how to let Michael -- and his family -- love her just as she is.

Frannie Zellman: FatLandIn the near future the Pro-Health Laws of the United States of America have become so oppressive that people seeking freedom over their bodies have established a new country. In FatLand, life is good and scales are forbidden. Free from the hatred and discrimination of the Other Side, FatLanders have built happy, productive lives. But not everyone is flourishing.

Charlie Lovett: The ProgramA new weight loss clinic in New York City has an offer for you -- given them $5,000 and they'll make you as thin as a supermodel. You can eat whatever you want and never gain an ounce. Tempted? Fledgling journalist Karen Sumner would be -- if only she had $5,000. When Karen finally walks through the blue and gold doors of The Program, however, she's on the trail of the hottest story of her career. If she and her friends are right, The Program is doing something even worse than creating an army of unnaturally thin women. Library Journal calls The Program "a lively first novel. Highly recommended."

Linda C Wisniewski: Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish HeritageEven before she was diagnosed with scoliosis at 13, Linda Wisniewski felt off kilter. Born to a cruel father in the insulated Polish Catholic community of Amsterdam, New York, she learned martyrdom as a way of life. Off Kilter shows her learning to stretch her Self as well as her spine as she comes to terms with her mentally deteriorating, widowed mother and her culture. Only by accepting her physical deformity, her emotionally unavailable mother, and her Polish American heritage does she finally find balance and a life that fits. Maureen Murdock, author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir & Memory, calls Off Kilter "a courageous, insightful book, particularly relevant for anyone who grew up feeling physically 'different.'"

Pat, Ballard: The Best ManSparks fly the night Lana Clarke meets to plan her sister's wedding -- and not just because curvaceous Lana announces she's stopped dieting and doesn't care if she's fat as maid of honor. The strong-willed sister of the bride attracts the attention of the groom's devastatingly handsome best man, Anthony Angelino. But when the sparks become flames, Lana's in trouble. Tony's first wife died mysteriously. Will Lana be next?

Judy Bagshaw: At Long Last, LoveBig beautiful --and in some cases slightly more mature -- heroines grace the pages of this collection of romantic short stories by Judy Bagshaw.

Jack Adler: Splendid SeniorsAn inspiring ensemble of 52 people whose accomplishments after age 65 remind us that creativity, passion & influence can not only flower in later years, but bear delicious fruit.

Mary Saracino: The Singing of Swans"The Singing of Swans is a remarkable narrative calling--even compelling--us to connect with our own ancestral roots, to seek our own inner wisdom, and to reclaim our own inner voices!" --Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman With the Alabaster Jar & Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile

Ellen Frankel: Beyond Measure: A Memoir About Short Stature and Inner Growth"If you have ever measured your height or your weight and felt good or bad about yourself as a result, you need this book. In its pages, Ellen Frankel makes an important contribution to human liberation by telling the most fabulous story that can be told, the story of a person coming fully into her own. This book is thought-provoking, heart-rending, and a genuine solace for people of all sizes." --Marilyn Wann, author of FAT!SO?

Pat Ballard: Abigail's RevengeInjustice, romance and suspense smolder in a small Southern town. Romantic suspense from the Queen of Rubenesque Romances, Pat Ballard.

Pattie Thomas, Ph.D.: Taking Up Space"Thomas's incisive blend of sociological inquiry and personal narrative amounts to a provocative treatise on fat oppression in our culture. Taking Up Space is a kind of roadmap through the minefield of the 'war on obesity,' and it offers protection to the reader ready to fight for cultural change surrounding the meaning of fatness." --Kathleen LeBesco, Ph.D., author of Revotling Bodies: The Struggle to Redefine Fat Identity.

Anne Richardson Williams: Unconventional Means: The Dream Down UnderShattered by family tragedy in the early 1960s, an upper-middle-class Southern teenager finds solace in art and literature. Decades later she is called to the continent whose literature once comforted her, and to a magical connection with an Aboriginal woman transcending race and half a world.

Pat Ballard: A Worthy HeirWhen Pam Spencer sees the newspaper ad seeking "a worthy heir" to Fiona Bainbridge's millions, she jumps at the chance to get her brother the medical care he needs after a job-related accident. But Reese Bainbridge, Fiona's handsome grandson--and jilted heir--rushes home in anger when he hears his grandmother has moved Pam and her brother into the family mansion. Sparks fly--and Pam is up to the challenge.

Pat Ballard: His Brother's ChildOne party, one silver-tongued, double-talking stranger intent on winning a bet, and Faith Carr ends up betrayed, alone, and pregnant. When Edward Brenner shows up on her doorstep intending to right his brother's wrongs, she's scared and vulnerable. But she agrees to marry this stranger to give the baby a father, although keeping him at a distance. She doesn't realize that Edward fell in love with her the moment he saw her. Will her battered self-esteem allow her to see the truth--and her own beauty?

Pat Ballard: Wanted: One GroomWealthy Hanna Rockwell will lose her home and her inheritance unless she marries by her 30th birthday. She's stunned when Matt Corbett, the faded rock start she worshipped in her teens, accepts her brother's offer to bail him out of financial trouble if he'll marry her. Her teenaged fantasies come to life--bringing a few surprises with them.

Pat Ballard: Nobody's PerfectNella Covington can't believe she's agreed to marry arrogant Samuel du Cannon, even if it IS only a marriage of convenience. He needs a mother for his young son, and she needs to keep her childhood home. If Sam's work keeps him on the road enough, she won't have to deal with him much. Sam's never been attracted to plus-size women, so they won't be tempted to have a real relationship. At least, that's what they keep telling themselves--

Food for Thought:Pat's still recovering from the bug she picked up a week and a half ago, soPeggy flew solo (again) today. She discussed

recently published research inNutrition Journalindicating that "dietetic literature on weight management fails to meet the standards of evidence based medicine...It could be said that weight loss enjoys special immunity from accepted standards in clinical practice and publishing ethics."

report of research claiming that the medicalization of "normal" conditions and problems cost the U.S. $77.1 billion in 2005 -- with "obesity" considered one of those "medicalized" conditions.

"The 'epidemics' in psychiatry are caused by changing diagnostic fashions -- the people don't change, the labels do. There are no objective tests in psychiatry -- no X-ray, laboratory, or exam that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder. What is diagnosed as mental disorder is very sensitive to professional and social contextual forces."

Food for Thought: I like to periodically have a food- and eating-positive show to help counteract the food terrorism and eating-related guilt and shame kicked up by "anti-obesity" healthism. Although I don't mention it in the show patter preceding the main musical selections, research indicates we actually absorb more nutrients from food we enjoy than from food we don't like. People with a history of chronic dieting who have difficulty getting back in touch with their natural, intuitive appetites may find Judith Matz & Ellen Frankel's book The Diet Survivor's Handbook: 60 Lessons in Eating, Acceptance and Self-Care helpful.

Food for Thought: In the shadow of contemporary hysteria about "obesity" the reality of food insecurity is usually ignored. The Life Sciences Research Office defined food insecurity as "existing whenever the availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable food in socially acceptable ways is limited or uncertain." (This definition is a from a 2005 Journal of the American Dietetic Associationarticle on "the hunger-obesity paradox.") The mean Body Mass Index of women in food-insecure households is higher than in food-secure households. The JADAarticle urges dietetics professionals not to make assumptions about food insecurity status by looking at someone's weight. In fact, "obese adults are more likely to be food insecure." (Which I relate not only to poverty but to chronic dieting.)

"That millions of men, women and children go hungry in one of the wealthiest countries in human history is a shameful reality. That this and other critical problems in America's food system get obscured from public view by bloated concerns over issues like obesity is all the more disgraceful."

November 19, 2008

Paul Campos has another great column in today'sRocky Mountain News. This one's on food fascism.

One
of my favorite bits is where Paul points out that "the center of the
government's current response to the panic over 'childhood obesity'" is
the absurd belief that "the reason there are fat kids in America is
that fat kids haven't been informed that it's considered desirable in
this culture to be thin."

This "rampant insanity," he notes,
"makes about as much sense as arguing that poor people are poor because
they haven't been informed it's considered desirable in this culture to
be rich."

But best of all is his closing recommendation to engage
in individual acts of rebellion -- getting angry at "the lies that
bombard us 24 hours a day about what's supposedly wrong with our
bodies," and about "a culture that's dedicated to making people try to
fix things about themselves that aren't broken."

Enjoy a doughnut, he urges. "The revolution starts one body at a time."

Read the entire column here.
(Do yourself a favor, though, and don't read the comments...as with
responses to most public articles about fatness, fat hatred abounds.

Food for Thought: Discussion of how the concepts of "good" and "bad" foods have morphed into "healthy" and "unhealthy" foods -- the same problematic categorization, just different labels. Encouragement to listen to your body (including your taste buds) throughout Thanksgiving and beyond, eating joyfully and guiltlessly.

Food for Thought: I've had food- and eating-themed shows before, but today's show was prompted by the Women's National Book Association Nashville chapter's upcoming summer reading/discussion series, whose theme this year is "Food for Thought: Reading and Writing About Food."

Each 1 1/2 hour Monday night book discussion session (starting June 9, with no class on June 30) is free and open to the public. You don't have to be a WNBA member to attend. You don't even have to be a woman to attend.

Each session will be facilitated by a literary expert, from Andrea Lindsey of Blackman High School to Ed & Janey Gleaves (retired from the Tennessee State Library & Archives) and Steve Prewitt of Lipscomb University.The sessions will be held from 7 to 8:30p.m. in Room 136 of the Ezell Center at Lipscomb University on the respective nights.

I haven't read any of the books in the series, so can't recommend them personally....although I've seen the movie version of Like Water for Chocolate and enjoyed its magical realism. But if contemporary orthorexic health pronouncements about food -- or chronic dieting -- have taken the joy out of your eating or cooking, these books might be worth sampling. (A caveat, though: I've skimmed the book description and some reviews of The Omnivore's Dilemma at Amazon.com, and that book appears to present some "obesity epidemic" hype as if it is fact, as well as perpetuate "good food/bad food" dichotomizing. For a balanced perspective, you might also read The Gospel of Food: Everything You Think You Know About Food is Wrong by Barry Glassner, as well as J. Eric Oliver'sFat Politics: The Real Story Behind America's Obesity Epidemic if you believe "obesity" is raging out of control in the U.S.)

If dieting culture has so alienated you from your appetites that you aren't sure what "normal" or natural eating is, consider this definition of "normal eating" by Ellyn Satter which I heartily recommend. It's from her 1987 book How to Get Your Kid to Eat...But Not Too Much.

Normal eating is being able to eat when you are hungry and continue eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it -- not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to use some moderate constraint on your food selection to get the right food, but not being so restrictive that you miss out on pleasurable foods. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad, or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is three meals a day, or it can be choosing to munch along. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful when they are fresh. Normal eating is overeating at times; feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. It is also undereating at times and wishing you have more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area in your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your emotions, your schedule, your hunger, and your proximity to food.